The game will chart Gollum\u2019s journey\u00a0after\u00a0<\/em>he lost the One Ring to Bilbo Baggins. You will see some familiar moments, such as Gollum being tortured into revealing that Bilbo has the ring, but you\u2019ll also see new material that has been carefully crafted in collaboration with Middle-earth Enterprises, the holders of the rights to JRR Tolkien\u2019s books.<\/p>\n At the recent Bigben Week event in Paris, the game\u2019s developers from Daedalic hosted a booth where you could watch a member of staff playing through a short demo of the Gollum game. We couldn\u2019t play the demo ourselves, this being strictly a hands-off affair, but we did watch with interest from the sidelines.<\/p>\n Watching with interest from the sidelines, as it turns out, is also what Gollum himself has to do. This game has always been pitched as a stealthy experience<\/a>, albeit with plenty of puzzles and exploration mixed in as well, but one thing really stood out from this demo: the game appears to be almost entirely combat-free.<\/p>\n The short demo that was shown, which seems to be the opening tutorial of the game, sees Gollum attempting to sneak around Orcs and other foes as he tries to make good an escape. Gollum has a few decent skills at his disposal \u2013 for example, because he\u2019s so ancient, he as a trait called \u2018intuition\u2019 that helps him sniff out his objectives \u2013 but one thing he cannot do is fight. At all.<\/p>\n In the demo, at least, if Gollum runs up to a guard and gets in their face (rather than finding a sneaky way around them), you\u2019ll see an instant GAME OVER type screen. Gollum is caught and defeated, and the player is loaded back to their most recent checkpoint. There\u2019s no option to clobber the guard with a rock or anything like that, at least not at this early stage of the game.<\/p>\n Instead, the player is encouraged to use the environment to guide Gollum away from danger \u2013 you can throw stones to distract the guards, you can clamber up walls to find hidden paths, you can sneak through little gaps that no one else can fit in, and you will also be presented with decisions that play into Gollum\u2019s split personality.<\/p>\n Will you embrace the darker Gollum personality or the more innocent Sm\u00e9agol? Your choices, in some cases, will send you down different paths, although the game does appear to have one set-in-stone story in the overarching sense. It sounds like an interesting experience, and the graphics are looking in quite good shape as well (especially when you manage to put the massively expensive movies out of your mind).<\/p> If you thought Gollum struggled against nameless Orcs, just imagine how he\u2019d fare when faced with a larger enemy such as a giant flying creature. This happens in the demo, too, and Gollum\u2019s only option is to run away and slide through a tiny gap in a wall to escape. Being both weedy and incredibly old, Gollum certainly isn\u2019t about to take part in any massive boss battles, quick-time events or Arkham-style combos.<\/p>\n The only exception to this combat-free mantra, which is certainly an interesting way to build a game, appears to be stealth takedowns. If you sneak up behind a standard foe and get your timing just right, you should be able to knock them out and clear a path for yourself. This is fairly standard in stealthy games, of course, but it sounds like these takedowns will be doubly important in Gollum, seeing as he doesn\u2019t have any other combat options to fall back on.<\/p>\n The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will launch on 1st September 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X\/S, with a Nintendo Switch launch coming later in the year, and you can pre-order your copy from GAME<\/a> now.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll definitely be keen to see how the full experience feels. There aren\u2019t many major games these days that don\u2019t involve combat in one way or another, so this should be a very interesting experiment. The results could be precious.<\/p>\n Follow Radio Times Gaming on Twitter<\/a> for all the latest insights. Or if you\u2019re looking for something to watch, see our TV Guide.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Visit our video game release schedule<\/a> for all upcoming games on consoles. Swing by our hubs for more Gaming<\/a> and Technology<\/a>\u00a0news.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Rob Leane Published: Tuesday, 24 May 2022 at 12:00 am One of the more intriguing upcoming games based on a famous character is The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which will put players in the grubby bare feet of the former Stoor Hobbit. The game will chart Gollum\u2019s journey\u00a0after\u00a0he lost the One Ring to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":15934,"template":"","categories":[8],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/05\/weve-seen-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-demo-and-its-almost-entirely-combat-free.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/05\/weve-seen-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-demo-and-its-almost-entirely-combat-free-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/05\/weve-seen-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-demo-and-its-almost-entirely-combat-free-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/05\/weve-seen-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-demo-and-its-almost-entirely-combat-free.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/05\/weve-seen-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-demo-and-its-almost-entirely-combat-free.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/05\/weve-seen-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-demo-and-its-almost-entirely-combat-free.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/05\/weve-seen-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-demo-and-its-almost-entirely-combat-free.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Rob Leane Published: Tuesday, 24 May 2022 at 12:00 am One of the more intriguing upcoming games based on a famous character is The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which will put players in the grubby bare feet of the former Stoor Hobbit. The game will chart Gollum\u2019s journey\u00a0after\u00a0he lost the One Ring to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/15933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/05\/Gollum-demo-c72bd73.jpeg?quality=90&resize=620%2C418"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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